Chapter Summaries

After a spatial rift opened for the departing wizards, Benjamin awoke in what seemed to be his ordinary family home, where his deceased companions Amy and Victor appeared as classmates. He recovered his memories of being a wizard caught in a trap, but his powers were suppressed, and he left with Amy and Victor to investigate the strange world.

• A Level 8 Wizard opened a spatial rift and ordered the wizards to set off.
• Benjamin woke as a teenager on his first day reporting to university, with his parents urging him to eat and hurry.
• Amy and Victor arrived to walk Benjamin to school, and he greeted them as if they were familiar classmates.
• Benjamin's memories returned, revealing that he was a Level 3 Wizard from Noren Academy and that Amy and Victor had died.
• Benjamin found his Nascent Soul and treasures still present but his Spiritual Power nearly stagnant, then left with Amy and Victor to investigate.

Benjamin tried to understand the strange world where his extraordinary powers were suppressed, but a lecture introduced valid scientific knowledge he had never encountered, leaving him uncertain whether the world was truly false. After noticing the university’s unusually small classes, he was confronted in the cafeteria by a furious man who recognized him.

• Benjamin walked to university with Amy and Victor while concealing that his powers and connection to his Internal Space were suppressed.
• Benjamin discovered that his body had adapted to life in this world and heard a physics lecture containing unfamiliar theories that he later verified as valid.
• Benjamin learned that Amy and Victor's classes also had fewer than ten students, deepening his doubts about the world.
• A tall, gloomy-faced man and several young people surrounded Benjamin in the cafeteria, and the man demanded to know if he was Benjamin.

Benjamin faced a school bully who challenged him to a mathematics duel, not a fight, and won the axe wager by finishing the test first with a perfect score. The students declared him the new freshman school bully, leaving Benjamin baffled by the plane’s strange customs.

• A green-haired school bully confronted Benjamin over taking first place and challenged him to a duel, placing his hand axe on the line.
• Benjamin accepted the challenge and competed against the bully in an advanced mathematics test while Amy refereed and Victor reviewed the questions.
• Benjamin used knowledge from his false memories to solve the difficult final problem and finished the test before the bully.
• Amy and Victor confirmed that both contestants earned full marks, making Benjamin the winner because he finished first.
• The bully gave Benjamin the axe and declared him the new freshman school bully, while Benjamin wondered what kind of plane he had entered.

Benjamin discovered that the axe he had won was ordinary, despite everyone around him treating it as a powerful symbol, and he resolved to restore his strength and learn this world's missing common sense. After class, Amy left with her aunt, who urged her to make friends and admitted she had hoped Amy would fail so she could grow through hardship.

• Benjamin confirmed that the axe had no supernatural properties, though Amy and Victor considered it a powerful weapon and symbol of strength.
• A lecturer praised Benjamin's axe as a fine example of craftsmanship and called it “the weight of knowledge,” deepening Benjamin's sense that he lacked this world's common sense.
• Benjamin noticed the university's unusually high number of staff and the mismatch between wartime news and society's peaceful atmosphere, then prioritized reconnecting with his Internal Space and filling his memory gaps.
• Benjamin attended class, absorbed an unfamiliar theoretical model, and put the axe in his backpack after dismissal, disappointing Amy and Victor.
• Amy told Benjamin and Victor that her aunt was taking her to an amusement park, then met the woman, who encouraged her to make friends and confessed she had hoped Amy would fail.

Benjamin continued trying to mobilize his suppressed Spiritual Power and began suspecting that the world around him might not be entirely false. He arranged to visit the commercial district with Amy and Victor, giving him a chance to investigate further.

• Benjamin recognized Kevin, a wizard he had once seen during the planar expedition, and learned from Victor that Kevin had been his hostile high school classmate.
• Benjamin practiced mobilizing Spiritual Power and found that his progress was improving, estimating that he could connect to the Internal Space within five days.
• Benjamin questioned why the world had recreated Kevin and contained knowledge beyond his own, then considered finding people to test whether the world was real.
• Benjamin searched the network for advanced physics and energy concepts, immersing himself in the unfamiliar material.
• Amy asked Benjamin and Victor for advice on a birthday gift for her aunt, who enjoyed watching villains be defeated in movies.
• Benjamin suggested that the three of them visit the commercial district on their day off, and Amy and Victor agreed.

Benjamin searched his unnaturally immaculate home and tested his parents’ memories, finding evidence that they and the world around him might be fabricated. The clues left him unsure whether the flaws were careless mistakes or bait, so he planned to investigate outside when he went shopping the day after tomorrow.

• Benjamin searched his parents’ bedroom and computer, finding no personal belongings or records and noticing that the family portraits appeared to reuse identical templates.
• Benjamin returned home and acted as though he had just arrived when his parents came back from shopping.
• At dinner, Benjamin asked about a broken astronaut model, and his father immediately recalled exactly where he had stored it.
• Benjamin spilled his water, and his mother reacted with an almost perfectly gentle and forgiving response.
• Benjamin found the repaired astronaut model where his father had said it would be and concluded that his parents might be fake, though he wondered if the obvious clues were deliberate.
• Benjamin decided to inspect the outside environment during a shopping trip the day after tomorrow, then focused on his dantian.

Benjamin investigated the strange calm and familiar faces in the Fantasy world, then connected his Internal Space and learned that more than six years had passed. He decided to test whether Viola was a fallen wizard and learned she would attend a Clean Beach volunteer event, while his plans grew more urgent with less than four years remaining.

• Benjamin went shopping with Amy and Victor, spotted a familiar wizard posing as a chief scientist, and later recognized Senior Viola as Amy’s aunt.
• After witnessing a Level 5 Wizard working as a beloved physical education teacher, Benjamin theorized that the Fantasy world housed fallen wizards under false identities and chose Viola as his next person to investigate.
• Benjamin connected a thread of Spiritual Power to his Internal Space, discovered that over six years had passed, and found that the plane blocked his artifacts and information signals.
• Benjamin studied the world more deliberately and asked Amy about Viola, who revealed that her aunt would attend a Clean Beach volunteer event in the South District in a little over ten days.

Benjamin spent more than ten days studying before using a beach cleanup event to probe Viola. His sudden feint revealed that she had trained combat instincts, and Viola left shaken while Benjamin concluded that his probe had succeeded.

• Benjamin devoted nearly all his time to studying other wizards’ knowledge until the Clean Ocean charity event brought him to the beach.
• Benjamin approached Viola during the break and learned that she enjoyed watching volunteers and her romantic partners suffer.
• Benjamin noticed Viola’s current boyfriend glaring at them and drew out her story about tormenting a former boyfriend.
• Benjamin feinted a punch at Viola, then removed a leaf from her hair, prompting her to dodge with a precise trained movement.
• Viola retreated in alarm, and Benjamin walked away, satisfied that his probe had produced a result.

Benjamin confirmed that Viola was a True Person and spent another year searching for signs of other fallen wizards. After finding far more True Persons than he expected, he wondered whether the world was a vast living society that was absorbing the wizards trapped inside it.

• Benjamin concluded that Viola was a True Person after her distinctive behavior and combat reflexes confirmed his suspicions.
• Benjamin decided to search for flaws in the world and uncover the purpose of whoever had trapped them there.
• A year later, Benjamin recognized Blood Butcher Baal, a former Level Seven combat wizard, working as a famous head chef.
• Benjamin realized that the number of True Persons in the city far exceeded what the fallen wizards and their contract creatures could explain.
• Benjamin left the restaurant fearing that the world might be a living society whose inhabitants were gradually digesting or assimilating the trapped wizards.

After graduating at the top of his class, Benjamin left his home planet on an interstellar voyage to explore the wider human territory and test whether the world was real. His travels confirmed that he was in a vast, genuine cosmic plane, and he resolved to uncover the rules behind the force controlling it.

• Benjamin completed his physics studies ahead of schedule with the school's best grades, while his parents' perfect celebration only deepened his suspicion that they were false.
• After visiting the planet's major regions and confirming it was real, Benjamin proposed a graduation trip to Frontier Star, and his parents quickly arranged his journey.
• Benjamin boarded the interstellar passenger ship Voyager and studied its facilities, recognizing a coherent technological system based on gravity, spatial folding, and matter-energy conversion.
• During the months-long voyage, Benjamin explored colony worlds, ocean planets, deserts, and asteroid belts, confirming that the planets and galaxies were not backdrops or a small-scale illusion.
• On an unfamiliar planet, Benjamin considered the vast force suppressing the wizards and embedded in society, then resolved to observe, understand, and control its rules.

Benjamin encountered Rex at an industrial technology seminar on Anvil Star and suspected that Rex shared his connection to Wizard Civilization. They tested each other through technical discussion and recognized a familiar shadow in one another, leaving their reunion unspoken.

• Benjamin attended a technical seminar at Titan Forging headquarters on Anvil Star and recognized Rex among the engineers.
• Benjamin listened to Rex debate an energy-transmission model and noticed that some of his reasoning resembled wizardly ways of understanding energy.
• Benjamin approached Rex and hinted at their shared perspective by asking about energy-field affinity and manipulating energy through will.
• Rex tested Benjamin with a question about periodic entropy fluctuations in a closed system, suggesting that the system might be breathing.
• Benjamin answered that the system could exchange energy with a greater void, and Rex recognized the familiar trace of another civilization in his gaze.

Benjamin visited Rex to exchange information about their fabricated world and learned that Rex’s Weaver brain chip had awakened him because its technology fit the world’s physical rules. Their meeting tested the hidden entity’s response to awakened people, and its apparent tolerance left them believing it was relatively benevolent.

• Benjamin visited Rex’s secure residence after Rex invited him to discuss technical matters.
• Rex explained that his Weaver brain chip had gradually broken through his false memories and that it worked because its technology could be understood and reproduced by this world’s science.
• Benjamin realized that some wizard knowledge could function as technology if it conformed to the world’s physical laws, though he could not yet grasp the further insight this suggested.
• Rex told Benjamin that people who died unexpectedly seemed to be reborn without their memories, while those who died naturally did not appear to revive.
• Benjamin and Rex exchanged what they had learned about the world, its unusual control, and its vast reality, but they still lacked answers about the hidden entity and how to escape.
• Benjamin and Rex concluded that their meeting had tested the hidden entity’s attitude toward awakened people and that its failure to interfere suggested it was relatively benevolent.

Benjamin and Rex traveled to the Iron Curtain frontline to investigate the universe’s hidden system, but the base commander refused to let them approach the fighting. Watching a battle remotely, they recognized Wizard World creatures among the alien combat units and suspected that intelligent aliens were directing them.

• Benjamin concluded that the force behind the orderly society might be a non-living system that tolerated anomalies unless they threatened its directives, and he and Rex identified the frontline as the likeliest place to investigate.
• Rex used his status and technical proposals to secure clearance for himself and Benjamin to visit Iron Curtain as observers.
• The base commander refused their request to observe the fighting from the front and allowed them to watch a small conflict remotely from a guarded post.
• Benjamin recognized the enlarged Molten Core Hounds, while Rex identified the shadowy creatures as Void Predators; they also spotted other combat units resembling creatures used in planar warfare.
• Benjamin and Rex realized that the familiar cannon fodder was being used on the frontline despite the presence of wizards, and they suspected that real aliens were hidden behind the creatures and directing the war.

Benjamin and Rex studied the Blue Devils and retrieved a damaged enemy mech after a battle near the front line. Their examination revealed that the aliens had a biological network suited to channeling supernatural energy, leading them to suspect the plane’s system had deliberately made nonhuman species hostile and designed the war.

• Benjamin asked the commander about the attackers, and the commander identified them as expendable vanguards for the more intelligent Blue Devils.
• Benjamin and Rex gained the commander’s trust by analyzing base data and conducting protected field observations.
• An enemy squad ambushed their escort near the front line, but the soldiers destroyed it and recovered a mostly intact walking mech.
• Rex and Benjamin dissected the mech and found its blue pilot had a biological network that could channel extraordinary energy.
• Benjamin and Rex concluded that the plane’s system had designated nonhuman lifeforms as hostile and that the interstellar war had been deliberately designed.

Benjamin and Rex withdrew from the front lines and visited Rex’s old friends, Calvin and Barton, where Benjamin concluded that the hidden presence might be shaping people’s lives around their deepest desires. A remark about exceptional cases gave Benjamin an idea for finding the presence, and he hurried back to his own birthplace to act on it.

• Benjamin and Rex returned from the front lines to Rex’s home planet and met his wizard friends Calvin and Barton.
• At a nightclub, Rex told Benjamin that Calvin and Barton had found lives better suited to their real dreams than their former lives as wizards.
• Benjamin connected their examples with Viola’s behavior and the unusually small number of soldiers, and proposed that the hidden presence read people’s desires and arranged roles to satisfy them.
• Rex warned that confronting the presence was dangerous, but Benjamin chose to pursue his idea, and Rex let him go.
• Benjamin returned to his birthplace in less than three days and headed home, eager to put his plan into action.

Benjamin confronted the entity controlling his supposed family and learned that it was Justice, an artificial intelligence created to enforce equality by suppressing extraordinary power and fulfilling each person’s deepest wishes. Justice explained its system, while Benjamin recognized how its idealized design had shaped the world’s peculiar social rules.

• Benjamin stopped the family gathering and accused his parents, Amy, and Victor of acting under another being’s control.
• The four family members turned emotionless and spoke in unison, introducing their controller as Justice and identifying Benjamin as Special Observation Subject No. 721.
• Benjamin explained that he had deduced the four were hollow puppets because everyone else he encountered, including Viola, had a real soul and independent thoughts.
• Justice revealed that a Sage created it to end injustice by sealing extraordinary power and guiding people toward lives that fulfilled their deepest hopes.
• Justice said people willingly embraced those lives because their desires mattered more to them than power or memories of the past.
• Benjamin considered the limits of Justice’s idea of fairness and recognized that the Sage’s theoretical society had produced the strange, imperfect rules he had observed.

Benjamin discovered that his deepest wish was to gain ever greater transcendent power, directly contradicting Justice’s mission to suppress such power and making him a loophole in its system. After Justice explained that it had erased three wizards who threatened its core rules, it erased Benjamin as well.

• Benjamin asked Justice why it had given him an elaborate family and childhood friends, and Justice said its system could not read his true wishes and had created relationships as compensation.
• Benjamin recognized that his deepest desire was power itself, which fundamentally conflicted with Justice’s goal of suppressing transcendent power.
• Justice failed to reconcile Benjamin’s wish with its directives and identified him as a loophole.
• Benjamin asked about the three wizards who had died, and Justice said it erased them after they tried to exploit loopholes and destroy its core rules.
• Benjamin asked how Justice would handle him, and Justice erased his existence, leaving him dead in darkness.

Benjamin revived in a clone through the Substitute Doll after an instant-death attack, then returned to Noren Academy No. 13 with Mentor Clark. He submitted a secret report about the plane and Justice to the Expeditionary Force command, leaving the war’s next stage to the Level 8 Wizards.

• Benjamin awoke in a cultivation tank and discovered that the Substitute Doll had transferred his soul into a prepared clone after his death.
• Benjamin found that the Body Tempering Method’s adaptive resistances had survived the change of body.
• Mentor Clark appeared in the laboratory, confirmed Benjamin’s revival, and took him to make an official report.
• Benjamin returned to Noren Academy No. 13 and compiled his nine years of experience and intelligence about the Mind Realm and Justice into a top-secret report.
• Benjamin sent the report to the Expeditionary Force’s highest command and concluded that the Level 8 Wizards would handle the next stage of the planar war.

Benjamin stayed at Noren Academy No. 13, working in Mentor Clark’s laboratory while awaiting word about the bizarre plane. After learning that the Substitute Doll that saved his life cost ten billion Advanced Military Merit, he began repaying Clark through research work, until Viola returned two months later.

• Benjamin asked Clark about obtaining another Substitute Doll and discovered its price was ten billion Advanced Military Merit, with a production cycle measured in centuries.
• Benjamin searched for other ways to evade death, found them even more expensive or restricted, and decided to focus on strengthening himself instead.
• Benjamin realized Clark’s Alchemy and fate studies might someday let him produce Substitute Dolls, but Clark assigned him seventeen sets of data to analyze as interest on his debt.
• Benjamin spent two months working as Clark’s research assistant and re-optimizing his Rune Artifact and Black Giant designs.
• Viola returned with news related to the bizarre plane.

Benjamin learned how Wizard Civilization’s Level 8 Wizards could resist and even defeat Level 9 beings through Law Solidification and coordinated power. He suspected that the civilization’s expansion served the nine Level 9 Wizards’ need for Level 8 allies, and Viola and Mentor Clark neither confirmed nor denied it.

• Viola told Benjamin that the plane governed by Justice had joined Wizard Civilization after a Level 8 Wizard negotiated with the artificial intelligence.
• Benjamin questioned how a Level 8 Wizard had overcome Justice’s power, and Viola and Mentor Clark explained that Level 8 Wizards could resist law-twisting through Law Solidification.
• Clark explained that coordinated Level 8 Wizards could combine their domains and briefly exceed a Level 9 being’s instantaneous output power.
• Viola said that three to ten Level 8 Wizards could usually suppress many known Level 9 beings and force them to retreat, negotiate, or fall.
• Benjamin concluded that wizard training prepared groups to fight stronger beings and speculated that the nine Level 9 Wizards drove the civilization’s expansion; Viola and Clark exchanged knowing smiles.